SLEEPER TRAINS IN EGYPT - 1970's - EARLY 80's

[Czesziafan]

A former girlfriend of mine went on holiday with her parents to Egypt in the summer of 1980. The trip involved overnight train travel between Cairo and Luxor / Aswan and vv. One thing she told me was that they travelled in old sleeping cars that were about to be replaced that year. I did some research that confirmed that the Egyptian Railways introduced new German built sleepers late in 1980.

Was the "old stock" she spoke of the ex-Wagons Lits coaches introduced in the late 1920's, described by George Behrend in "Grand European Expresses", or something else, and if so, what?

I made the same journey a few years later and it was definitely new German stock then.

 

[Jamesrob637]

My dad travelled on a French-built overnight train Cairo to Aswan in 1981. Perhaps these were the trains in question?

 

[Czesziafan]

That's interesting. As far as I am aware WL had sleepers built in the 20's for Egypt which remained in use certainly into the 50's as there are published photos of them at that time. According to George Behrend in Grand European Expresses (1962) the contract between Egyptian Railways and WL was due to expire that year, and the railway would operate its own sleepers thereafter: he goes on to say that new coaching stock built in Hungary was to be introduced. However the Cooks Continental Timetable for 1963 states that sleeping and dining car services in Egypt were operated by WL. An ER timetable from 1976 makes no reference to WL and they seem to have been running the services themselves.
The next reference is an article in Modern Railways in 1980 about German built stock being introduced for the Egyptian sleeper services, and WL being awarded the contract to operate them.
So your father's experience of being on a French train suggests that the old WL stock was still in use in 1981. Bearing in mind that some very antiquated WL stock was still operating in Europe in the early 80's, including the Night Ferry sleepers, and type S sleepers dating from 1926 on the Vienna - Warsaw train, it is entirely possible. There is no evidence that the Hungarian stock referred to by Behrend ever materialised.